Wednesday, March 09, 2011

"National Council of Young Israel executive VP gives US president note on behalf of Jewish leaders pleading for commutation of agent's sentence.

The Jewish leaders who met with US President Barack Obama at the White House on Tuesday did not raise the fate of Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard in their limited time with him, but one of them made sure Obama got the message.

Following the meeting, National Council of Young Israel executive vice president Rabbi Pesach Lerner, who has been the driving force behind efforts to bring about Pollard’s release, went up to Obama and gave him a note pleading for his life sentence to be commuted."-more

And there's this:

Kissinger: Release Israeli spy Pollard

"Saying he found the arguments of other top former U.S. national security officials “compelling,” former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on Monday called for President Obama to commute the remainder of Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard’s life sentence.

"At first I felt I did not have enough information to render a reasoned and just opinion,” Kissinger said in his Mar. 3 letter, released today by a public relations firm that has been lobbying for the release of Pollard, sentenced to life in prison for espionage in 1987.

“But having talked with [former Secretary of State] George Shultz and read the statements of former CIA Director [R. James] Woolsey, former Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman [Dennis] DeConcini, former Defense Secretary [Caspar] Weinberger, former Attorney General [Michael] Mukasey and others whose judgments and first-hand knowledge I respect, I find their unanimous support for clemency compelling.” -more

And this:

Minister to visit Pollard in US prison

"Israeli Communications Minister Moshe Kahlon will next week make a visit to Jonathan Pollard who is serving a prison sentence in the US for espionage for Israel.

Two months ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a personal letter to US President Barack Obama requesting that Pollard, who has been in prison for 25 years be pardoned." -more

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But the news item that I long to report is that Jonathan Pollard has been released from his unfair punishment of 25 years in prison!